''Megachile'' (''Megachiloides'') ''chomskyi'' is a species of leafcutter bee found in Texas. It is in the ''oenotherae''

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

. It is likely a specialist pollinator of plants in the family

Onagraceae The Onagraceae are a family of flowering plants known as the willowherb family or evening primrose family. They include about 650 species of herbs, shrubs, and treesdescribed the species in 2013 and named the specific name in honor of

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

Taxonomic history

Royal Saskatchewan Museum The Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) is a Canadian natural history museum in Regina, Saskatchewan. Founded in 1906, it is the first museum in Saskatchewan, and the first provincial museum in the three Prairie Provinces. The institution was formed ...

entomologist Cory S. Sheffield wrote the

species description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have ...

for ''M. chomskyi'' in a 2013 paper in the journal ''

ZooKeys ''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the editor-in-chief is Terry Erwin ( Smithsonian Institution). It is published by Pensof ...

''. Sheffield concurrently published the specimen data via GBIF's Integrated Publishing Toolkit. All nineteen of the ''M. chomskyi'' specimens Sheffield based his description on were provided by Jack Neff of the Central Texas Melittological Institute. Neff and Allan W. Hook collected most of the specimens. In all there were two male specimens and seventeen female specimens: one male was designated the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

, one female was designate an allotype, and the rest were designated

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). O ...

s. Neff had initially identified these specimen as all being '' M. amica''. Sheffield placed ''M. chomskyi'' in the ''oenotherae''

of the subgenus ''Megachiloides'', which also includes ''M. amica'', '' M. oenotherae'', and '' M. umatillensis''. The specific name ''chomskyi'' honors

. Sheffield wrote he commemorated Chomsky "for his many academic achievements and contributions as a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, political critic, activist and global champion of human rights and freedoms". Sheffield also has stated that he has been "a huge fan and follower of his writings, lectures, and political views for a long time". The magazine ''

Science News ''Science News (SN)'' is an American bi-weekly magazine devoted to articles about new scientific and technical developments, typically gleaned from recent scientific and technical journals. History ''Science News'' has been published since ...

'' included ''Megachile chomskyi'' in its list of "unusual new species names of 2013", and the Israeli newspaper ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner ...

'' included this species in a 2016 article listing taxa named after Jews.

Distribution

''M. chomskyi'' is found in the American state of Texas. The type locality, where the holotype was collected, is in

Winkler County Winkler County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 7,791. Its county seat is Kermit. The county was created in 1887 and organized in 1910. It is named for Clinton McKamy Winkler, a colonel in th ...

. Other counties specimens were collected include Ward County, Kleberg County, and

Travis County Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is n ...

. Collection areas included the

Monahans Sandhills State Park The Monahans Sandhills State Park is a state park located in the southern Llano Estacado in Ward County and Winkler County, Texas. The closest major town is Monahans, Texas, and the closest limited-access highway ingress is Exit 86 on Interstat ...

on the border of Ward and Winkler Counties. Sheffield has suggested that the range might extend to Arizona and Kansas, raising the possibility that some specimens identified as ''M. amica'' might in fact be ''M. chomskyi''.

Description and diagnosis

Species in the ''oenotherae'' group have long tongues, although ''M. chomskyis tongue is not as long as those of ''M. umatillensis'' and ''M. oenotherae''. Both sexes of ''M. chomskyi'' have a tongue length of , making it more than half the length of the body. For both sexes, the tongue's first palpomere is 55% the length of the second. ''M. chomskyi'' is most morphologically similar to ''M. amica''. However, ''M. chomskyi'' are larger than ''M. amica'' and ''M. oenotherae'' so their body length can be used as a diagnostic. The body length is for males and for females. Males have a forewing length of while females have a forewing length of . The females of ''M. chomskyi'' and ''M. amica'' can also be distinguished by their hair. The dark pubescence on female ''M. chomskyi'' is composed entirely of short hair, whereas the dark hair on ''M. amica'' is of varied lengths.

Biology

Fifteen specimens of ''M. chomskyi'' were collected on the flowers of '' Calylophus hartwegii'' (Hartweg's sundrops, Hartweg evening primrose) and one was collected from the flowers of ''

Oenothera drummondii ''Oenothera'' is a genus of about 145 species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening primrose, suncups, and sundrops. They are not closely related to ...

''. Sheffield suggests that, like other members of the ''oenotherae'' species group, ''M. chomskyi'' is oligolectic, exclusively pollinating plants in the family Onagraceae. The ''M. chomskyi'' specimens were collected as early as late April and as late as June.

Conservation status

In 2016,

NatureServe NatureServe, Inc. is a non-profit organization based in Arlington County, Virginia, US, that provides proprietary wildlife conservation-related data, tools, and services to private and government clients, partner organizations, and the public. Nat ...

gave ''M. chomskyi'' a

conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation ...

of "GU", denoting they could not assign a conservation rank due to insufficient data.

Genetics

An analysis of the Cytochrome oxidase I gene showed a 7.8% difference between ''M. chomskyi'' and ''M. amica''; each species had

intraspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organis ...

variation of less than 0.8%.

Taxonomic history

Distribution

Description and diagnosis

Biology

Conservation status

Genetics

Notes

References

Works cited

Further reading